~ Cogito ergo sum

Monthly Archives: May 2016

Several weeks ago, I began to receive paperwork from JFCBS for “taking up duties” on May 30. So I guess I’ve now officially taken up my duties. And I continue to fill out paperwork. That has taken up most of my first two days — in addition to reading lots of information documents. I have to use a glossary to decipher the alphabet soup of acronyms. Information overload!

Dick and I can now access the base and the amenities there without being interrogated and searched. Yay! As of tomorrow, we will be registered as residents of the Netherlands.

I biked to work today and my sweet husband escorted me part way this morning to make sure I didn’t get lost. 😀 It’s a very pleasant ride through town, past an 18th century castle, fields of sheep and cows and a lovely orchard. We returned our rental car today so now we’re reliant on bike and public transport. At this moment, we’re taking the train on a trip back home.

We’re slowly getting settled into our new home. Dick learned how to use the washer today (via our helpful landlady) and he got the last big items on our shopping list. I met one of our neighbors and she welcomed us to the neighborhood.

We’re still waiting for the all powerful debit card. Next steps are Internet connection, cell phone plan and a personal chipkaart for public transport. These items will give us a little more stability — or maybe just connectivity?

We met with our landlady this morning to go through our rental house and get the keys. Our landlady is awesome. She’s trés sophistiqué — impeccably dressed, perfectly coiffed and she wears the most adorable shoes! She speaks perfect English (and is also fluent in Dutch and French). When I told her that I couldn’t use the PX at the Army base, she said, “oh, you’ll just have to make friends with someone who can get you in.” And when she explained the most people in South Limburg are Catholics, she said most are “Catholic a la carte”. 😄 She gave us lots of info about the area and tips on shopping (the store where I can find great shoes 👠) and travel. She’s been very accommodating and helpful.

The house is fully furnished and has some kitchen basics that will tide us over until our shipment arrives, but there are a few things we need to get started. Since we had a gift card for IKEA, we headed there first and entered the maze. This one is a bit more of a maze than the others I’ve been in! After circling the second floor about five times, we finally got pointed in the direction of the stairs to the bottom floor where the items on our list were located. Mission accomplished.

We got a call from the bike shop that our bikes were ready for pickup. 🚲 Yay! They look great. We took them out for a ride after dinner tonight. What was supposed to be a paved bike path in the park, turned out to cross with mountain bike paths in some parts — a little extra work out for me and the bike.

Our dinner tonight was Dominoes pizza and I’m not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed it. 😊 We drank red wine with it to make it seem more European. 🍷 😁

The last couple of days we’ve been getting a feel for our surroundings and doing what we can to transition from visitors to residents. The former has been fun; the latter requires some patience.

Possessing a bank account, and more importantly a debit card, is vital for transacting business in NL (and I suppose any country). We learned from our previous trips to NL that credit cards are not widely accepted. Most stores and vendors only accept debit cards with PIN numbers. When we were here on holiday in 2014, we were fortunate to have Papa Smid’s debit card to use. When I was here last September, I had to contact my credit card company to wire me money when my cash supply was depleted (poor planning on my part).

I knew from my research that we needed to have a permanent address to open an account, and in most cases, a BSN number (similar to an SSN). Diplomatic residents are not required to apply for a BSN, however. I was told by my colleagues that we just needed our passports and resident address. The problem is that not all banks are set up for accounts without BSN numbers. We discovered after waiting for someone to wait on us at ING, that they are not opening accounts for JFCBS employees. We knew that ABN AMRO accommodated NATO employees, so we headed to Sittard to visit the branch that will be closest to us. The helpful man there said we needed to go to the Heerlen branch, where there was a specialist who worked with JFCBS employees. He arranged an appointment for us the following day. Sure enough, this specialist knew exactly what to do and we were able to use our SSN as our ID number. We now have an account, but we can’t really use it until we receive our debit cards in 3-5 business days. So we wait and thankfully we have enough euros in cash to pay our rental deposit and cover expenses for now.

I was able to visit the housing office on the base Thursday (after proving my right to be there and having our car searched, lol). I thought I was picking up a rental contract, but no — they have to prepare the rental contract and because they are backed up, it will take several days. Our landlady is very understanding and agreed to give us the keys before the contract is finalized. We will meet with her on Saturday and plan to move our stuff in on Monday (the rental car has to be returned on Tues). I can’t wait to unpack all our stuff and settle in.

We looked at bikes on Thursday and found some good used ones. Great! Except they have to go in the shop for reconditioning and they’re also backed up; we might get them on Tuesday. Dang. We can rent some bikes until then and I may have to take the bus to work on Tuesday.

The jet lag has lingered more than I could tolerate this time. I think the rainy days on Monday and Tuesday delayed my circadian rhythm adjustment. I laid awake for hours each night and was slightly comatose during some part of the days. I FINALLY got a decent night of sleep Wednesday night. Whew! I’m feeling much better.

Thursday was a nice sunny day here and we spent most of it in Maastricht. We mostly just browsed around getting a feel for the place and then enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant on the square. We’ll have to budget for regular dining allotments at the many restaurants there! This was my third trip to Maastricht and there is so much more to explore. It’s interesting to hear so many different languages on the streets — English, French, Italian, German, Limburgse and more that I can’t identify!

Friday was an unplanned day with no errands per se. We decided to rent bikes and ride to Hoensbroek Castle to do a tour. We experienced the rolling hills of Limburg and the limits of our current physical condition! Ugh. The castle is amazing. The foundation dates back to 1250 and turret dates to the 14th century. The current exhibit within some of the rooms features D’Artagne — the real musketeer under Louis XIV. I love having this access to HISTORY! We ran into a guide who shared a few short stories with us, including a story about the archives. Very cool!

We looked at three more houses today and made a tentative appointment for another showing on Wednesday.

House 5 is a detached house in Brunssum. It’s a great location in a neighborhood we scouted on Sunday and liked. The interior has been completely renovated. The fridge in the kitchen was small — kind of like a dorm fridge. Everything is new, but it’s plain. The rooms have no closets and the bathrooms (1/2 and ‘full’) are TINY — as in room enough to stand in one place with zero storage. We scratched this one off the list pretty quickly.

House 6 is a duplex in Brunssum on Frans Halsstraat. All the streets in this neighborhood are names after Dutch painters. It’s a short walk to work and within sight of the international school. The kitchen needs updating and doesn’t have much cupboard space. The bathrooms and bedrooms are adequate. The garden is nice enough and it has a covered terrace. There’s a storage shed for bikes. The owner apparently inherited the property from his parents; he lives up north and has to drive 2 hrs to show the place. We had a nice chat with him about the house and his work at J&J.

House 7 was added to our list after another scan of the house office listings. It’s at the very top of our budget, but it’s furnished and in Brunssum so we decided to check it out. It’s in a similar neighborhood as House 5. The first thing I noticed, when we walked in, was the olive green carpeting on the stairs. 😛 The living/dining room is big and bright, but a large set of oak cabinets dominates the space. The kitchen isn’t too bad; it’s good size and has a dishwasher. The bedrooms have built-in cabinets with lots of storage and the master has a lg king size bed. The carpeting is various colors from past decades. The attic is completely finished, again in 70s or 80s decor, with another king size bed. But wait . . . there’s more! The basement is also completely finished with big old furniture, including a dining table with a u-shaped bench (looked like something out of an older restaurant).

The owners of House 7 are an older couple, who have apparently downsized to a place over the border in Germany. I can’t begin to document the ONE HOUR we spent with this couple! Neither one spoke a lot of English; he knew it better than she did. She hopped back and forth from German to Dutch with a sprinkle of a few English words. The husband and Dick tried to translate at first, but gave up as the words kept tumbling from her mouth. What a chatterbox! She told me she only talks a lot when she likes the people; I was supposed to take that as a compliment. 🙂 Being sleep deprived, I found it difficult to concentrate on figuring out what she was talking about. It was exhausting! They were very sweet and anxious to accommodate us. They offered to buy new furniture for the living room and let us pick it out. They also offered to lend us any items we needed and a supply of fresh green beans from their garden in the summer! When we said that the house was a little too much for us, they suggested we just live on two of the floors instead of four. They insisted that we call them back to let them now whether we wanted the house or not. After we finally got to our car and started to pull out, the wife came running out to tell us some more! 😆

Out of seven houses to choose from, two are ruled out immediately because they’re too small, two are so-so because the decor is old/traditional (we want to go more modern/chique), and one isn’t furnished. That narrows the list to two. We stuck with our top pick from yesterday — House 2, but we needed to see if it was still available (remember another couple looked at it after us). The answer is YES! And the owner is thrilled that we want to rent it. Yay, we have a home! 🏡 Thank God!

We had dinner with my new colleagues this evening and they provided us with lots of useful information. Tip #1: get a bank account as soon as possible and we don’t need a residency card to do that. That’s our first order of business on Wed. and then we’ll go to the housing office on the base to get our lease contract. We hope to move in next week!

Jasmine signed us up for House Hunters International, but alas we didn’t get a call. So we’ll have to do this house hunting thing on our own and you’ll have to follow along without video and voiceover. 🏡 We used several sources for our search: AHRN.com (the military’s housing site), 123wonen.com, funda.com and the housing office listings. One of my new colleagues kindly scanned and emailed the housing office listing, because it isn’t available online. This was a HUGE help since the most viable listings are there. We’re starting with furnished 3 bedroom houses within a 5km radius of JFCBS. We drove around some of the neighborhoods on Sunday to get a sense of them and then made appointments on Monday morning.

House 1 is in the northern part of Heerlen just south of the base. We really like the neighborhood, which has some shops and restaurants. It’s only 10 min by bike to work in one direction and the train station in the other. The house is small, though and the kitchen is tiny with no microwave or freezer. The rental agent is very personable and suggested a bigger house on the other side of Brunnsum. We followed her by car for what seemed like miles and miles. We drove through Hoensbroek, which we had already ruled out because we didn’t like the feel of the town — too suburban. The town we ended up in is Oirsbeek, which has a small market square with a church on one side. There’s a bakery and other shops close by. House 2 is very spacious with a new kitchen and beautiful garden. Most of the furniture is new and the bedrooms are good size with closets. There’s a wood burning fireplace, a garage and a washer & dryer (many rentals have a washer only or just hookups). The agent told us that the last occupant was an Italian colonel. Ha! Another couple came in to see it right after us. If we decide on this one, we’ll have to hope it’s still available. According to Google maps, it’s a 6.2km bike ride to work. This could be the excerise regimen that I have to stick to!

House 3 is a row house in Heerlen not far from House 1. It fronts to some green space and again is close to shops and work. I’m not crazy about the exteriors of row houses, but the inside of this house was a pleasant surprise. It’s bright and open. The kitchen is adequate with a dishwasher and microwave, though the fridge freezer is tiny. It has three floors with two bedrooms on the second floor and a large bedroom on the third floor. The washer is on the second floor and the dryer is on the third; it would be a bit inconvient to heft laundry up and down a spiral staircase, but it’s manageable. The garden is nice and the third floor has a roof terrace, both with a nice southerly view (Germany on the left and Belgium on the right!). This one also has a garage in the back. The decor is okay; the livingroom has sort of an African theme going on. The owner was very nice; she enjoyed being able to practice her English. 🙂

House 4 is a row house in Brunssum. It’s an appealing location that is walking distance to market square and JFCBS. There are several rows of houses that sit right next to a highrise apartment building. The unit backs up to an identical row unit; all the doors and windows therefore face the front. The ‘garden’ is also in the front and is very small. I would describe the furnishing as traditional with many wood pieces, a chandelier and some antiques. The dining/living room is spacious, but the tv is old and the fireplace is only decorative. The eat in, farm-like kitchen is big and nicely finished. The microwave and freezer are in the storage room (looks like a garage) right next to the washer. That’s a bit odd. The bedrooms are nice size, but there’s not much (or any) closet space. The owners are nice enough; it was amusing to watch them help each other find the right English word for things.

Dick and I agree that House 2 is the front runner. We have two more houses to see on Tuesday. To be continued . . . .

We were anxious to check out market square in Brunssum today and do some shopping. We’re already familiar with major Dutch stores like Hema, Blokker, Kruidvat, Albert Hein and Aldi (also in the States). But now they’re our everyday necessity stores and not just curious this and that tourist stops. My first priority was buying a hair dryer and I knew I would find that at Blokker. The curious thing is that they keep all small appliances on display behind locked glass and you have to ask a clerk to get one from the back room. Hema is funny to me because it’s kind of a department store until it isn’t. They also sell ready to eat food and food items. Not unlike Target or Super Walmart I guess, except there are steaming sausages right next to the cookware and two steps away from a rack of tank tops are cold cuts, milk and cheese. 😀 We took a lot of mental notes of things we will need once we find a more permanent home. We found a hardware store, a home goods store and located the bakery and butcher shop.

Dick got his first taste of kibbling since our last trip. That was our quick lunch before heading to the bike shop. We found some decent used bikes that we’ll try out and possibly buy tomorrow. Next stop Albert Hein.

We’ve been in Albert Hein several times before, but again this trip was a little different. Now we have to depend on Albert Hein! The trick is not only deciphering the Dutch labels and unfamiliar brands, it’s figuring out where everything is located. It’s a small store so you’d think that wouldn’t be too difficult . . . but it is! In fact, I think it’s the compactness that makes it tricky. For instance, the coffee creamer was not with dairy or coffee. It was in a corner near the frozen food (okay it was sort of across from the coffee). I had a hard time finding bar soap until I slowly walked down the most logical aisle — there it was at the bottom in a small basket. There were only two brands and the packages were smaller than I’m used to. We got everything on our list and next time will be easier. 😅

I felt jet lag kicking my butt around 2 pm when we were out shopping, but some food and a Coke Light revived me somewhat. I was still in a haze all day and my patience was on empty. I had enough energy for a walk around the park after dinner and then watching a random show on Netflix. We discovered that our selection of available shows is different here! Dutch titles popped up and some of the PBS shows we’ve been watching aren’t available. I guess we’ll have to wait awhile to see the end of Mr. Selfridge — bummer. Back to jet lag, the cycle that I’ve experienced on each trip here is that I crash the first night and sleep 12-14 hrs because I’m so sleep deprived. The second night I go to bed at my normal time around 10 or 11. Sometimes I sleep for an hour or so, but then I’m wide awake for hours. My body thinks it’s 5 or 6 pm EST. So here I am typing this post at 1 am NL time, because I can’t sleep. 😩

The movers arrived Monday morning and got busy packing. Our shipped goods were packed first and loaded on the truck. I finished up packing my suitcases and sending out forms for JFCBS (this is how I’ll refer to my employer forthwith). After a discussion with the mover rep, we decided we needed a bigger storage unit and, thank God, Dick found one at the facility close by. Whew!

We took a much needed break from the action Monday night and went into town. My kids gave me a gift card for dinner at the Top of the Hub (52nd floor of the Prudential building) for my birthday and we saved it for our last week at home. We had an amazing evening taking in the awesome view of Boston and enjoying a delicious dinner! It was the perfect way to say ‘so long Boston’.

Tuesday was moving day. All of our remaining belongings were loaded up and put into storage. I left most of the directing to Dick and went off to meet a friend for lunch. 🙂 When I got back, the house was empty and that was a little sad. I got busy cleaning to stay on course. Dick loaded up our neighbor’s truck with the leftover junk to take to the dump. We crammed our luggage and the dregs in two cars to take to Alan’s. Yeah, we still had two cars. More on that later. We did a final walk-through of the house and kind of said goodbye to all of the rooms as we went. So long 92 Lakeshore Drive. Thanks for the memories!

The house closing was Wednesday afternoon. We had a nice chat with the new owners while we waited for the attorney to arrive. They’re a young couple and first time home owners. It was great to see them excited about owning our house! The husband worked as a dairy farmer in Georgia before moving north to work in milk processing. I felt like we had something in common. 🙂 Our realtor was a bit late to the meeting because she had to find a box for the dishes we left in the dishwasher. Oops! I was embarrassed and a little ticked that some of the dishes we use the most weren’t packed for shipment. 😝 During the paper signing, our realtor told us that she’s going to be in Aachen and Maastricht in August. That’s so close to where we will be; we have to try to meet up with her and her family.

After the closing, we were officially homeless and that’s okay! We ticked off a couple more errands Wed. afternoon, picked up Kathryn and stopped by Pastor Greg’s house to say goodbye. After dinner in Ipswich, we took a drive out to Pavilion Beach — a spot that has some good memories for us.

Thursday was wrap up and travel day. Dick had more errands to take care of, including getting rid of the Passat. After months of trying to sell it, he decided to donate it to a votech high school where it will be used by students learning automotive repair. That seems like a fitting way for Dick’s favorite driving machine to live out it’s life. 😊 My brother Tim offered to buy the Jetta, so arrangements were made for that car at the last minute. Yay! I finalized the packing to make sure all our bags were 50 lbs or less. The packing was a little stressful as more stuff was added and shifted.

We stayed at Alan & Natasha’s house the last two nights and they will sort of be our home base while we’re away. They also agreed to adopt our dog Sadie. We’re so thankful for that! Jenna and Kathryn met up with us at their house and we packed up Jenna and Natasha’s cars for the ride to the airport. We stopped off at American Barbeque for dinner — assuming it may be awhile before we enjoy American bbq again. 😀 After teary good byes 😢 and a pretty quick check in at Logan airport, we boarded for our journey to Amsterdam. ✈️

I hadn’t slept well the two nights at Alan’s and I braced myself for more sleep deprivation. I get muscle spasms in my legs and it’s really bad when I fly. I drank lots of water on Thurs. and ate a banana and almonds for potassium and magnesium, but it didn’t help. The onboard entertainment wasn’t working and I had no light for reading — it was a long 5 hr flight to Reykjavik. ☹️Yuck. Dick slept, though! I stretched out during our quick layover and the spasms were less during our second flight to Amsterdam. I was able to sleep a little.

When we picked our our bags in Schiphol, the foot locker was missing. After a discussion with the woman at baggage information and beginning to make a claim, she realized our ‘bag’ was probably in the oversize bay. Yup! We piled all our baggage in a rental car and hit the road. The trip to Brunssum took longer than expected because of traffic slow downs, but we made it to the bungalow park by 5:30 and checked in. Our temporary residence turned out to be cute and homey enough. We had the impression from the listing that there would be no wifi, but found instructions to connect in our welcome packet. Yay, what a relief!

We had a satifying meal at Canadian Corner, a restaurant close by, and a nice chat with an American waitress. Dick discovered that his understanding of Dutch will be challenged by the Limburg dialect. Both of us will have to learn some of it!

We finally have movers lined up! Whew, that was close — four days to go. The lowest quote ended up being the company that was selected, which was fine with us. Their reps were more knowledgable about international moving and the specific requirements.

In the meantime, I’ve been able to sort out all of our shipped goods and organize my wardrobe for packing. Our smoke/carbon monoxide detectors failed inspection and we had to replace them. The walk through and closing are scheduled. Last meet ups with some friends are also scheduled. And our ‘so long Boston’ date at the Top of the Hub (birthday gift from my kids) has been reserved. We still haven’t sold the VW cars and the piano. Several false hopes for buyers, but no sale. Tough choices to give away may be necessary.

I had this great idea to change my hair style while I still had access to my trusted stylist. I thought: new country, new job, why not a new look? I browsed through hundreds of pictures on Pinterest, pinned my favorites and got reviews from my girls. I went into my salon appointment with a good idea of what I wanted. Somehow my directions and responses to crucial questions didn’t get interpreted correctly. The color is too dark and the bangs are too short — not things that can easily be fixed. So much for being Eurochique. Ugh!

We leave in ten days . . . TEN DAYS! Last week I was pretty chill thinking that everything was well in hand. One way flight booked; bungalow reserved for temp stay; moving estimates coming in and wrapping up my last days at EIS. Today, I’m not so chill; I’m kinda stressed. Our moving estimates have been brought into question and the third/final survey was just done this morning leaving precious little time to get the approval and reserve the dates (next week!). I trying to remember to pray and have faith.

I had an awesome visit with my kids this past weekend and the best Mother’s Day. I’m so thankful for our relationships and sooooo proud of who they are. My cup overflows! I’m excited for them to visit us in NL.

I’m grooming the to-do list and trying to remember all the details that should be attended to before we’re thousands of miles away. I’m afraid I’m going to miss something important! We’ve got some more goodbyes to make and I’m sure we won’t get to everyone.

So I’ll prioritize and make the days count. One way or another we’ll empty a house and board a plane by the 19th!